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Universal Remote Advice?

2A Batterie

2A Batterie

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 9, 2004
622
0
Out of a Suitcase, USA
I'm visiting my parents for the holidays and would like to make their life a little bit simpler (yes, I already converted them to Mac years ago).

They have a 42" LG widescreen LCD TV, a set top box for their Comcast cable, an Onkyo TX-SR503 and a Panasonic DMR-E55 (DVR). The universal remote that came with their Comcast box only has the option of controlling three of those, and it won't control the Onyo at that. Is there a universal remote out there that anyone would suggest?
 
How much are you looking to spend? Logitech has their line of Harmony remotes. If you can find one in your price range, I *highly* recommend them. I just got one for Christmas and the setup was incredibly simple and it does everything that I want it to.
 
tobefirst said:
How much are you looking to spend? Logitech has their line of Harmony remotes. If you can find one in your price range, I *highly* recommend them. I just got one for Christmas and the setup was incredibly simple and it does everything that I want it to.
Click to expand...

Holy Schnikies!!! I think most of the remotes in that line cost more than the individual components it controls!!! What model did you purchase. If I did purchase one, I'd go with the bottom of the line 659, which is still $129. Yikes!
 
You can get the 550 cheaper. Also, TigerDirect had the 670 on sale for $80 before Christmas, I believe. They are now selling the one I got, the 880, for $165, which is a lot less than my dad paid, I'm positive.

Do a little more looking online, and you'll find them cheaper. That being said, you're right, they aren't cheap. That's why I was asking. (; But they are very much worth it, at least mine is for me.
 
I second the vote for Harmony remotes. I am on my second one (model 720 - color, rechargeable, etc). I got it new on eBay for around $175 and sold my old one for $75, so it only cost me about $100. My wife refers to it as "the remote for dummies" and loves using it! Harmony remotes are the only remotes that I have seen that are function based, rather than device based (but you can get to the individual devices when you need to do so). My brother has a $2000 Marantz remote that is device based and that he never uses b/c you have to manually program macros to perform functions such as "Watch TV" or "Watch DVD", and the response time is S-L-O-W. The Harmony has these functions built in, is much faster in use, and is easily programmed on the computer. You just tell it what components you have, what components are used for certain functions, and it takes care of the rest for you! By far the easiest remote to program that I have ever seen. Get one, and you'll wonder what you ever did without it!
 
A circuit City near my parents' house is selling the 550 for $80. I think I'll just take the simplest route and pick that up and set it up for them. Thanks for the input!
 
I have the Logitech Harmony Xbox 360 remote which looks identical to the 550, except it has buttons to control the 360's DVD functions as well and is white and green, and it is an awesome remote. I highly recommend it. It makes life so much easier, especially when you have multiple components and a receiver. I thought people who spent more than 10 bucks on a universal remote were crazy until I actually saw one being used and then I got one. Mine was around 80 bucks from Tiger Direct. It's compatible with all my components. And Logitech is always adding supported components to the software as they are made available, so the remote will control things they buy in the future (whereas your basic universal remotes won't). And even if the software doesn't support that component, you can use the original remote and have the Logitech remote learn the commands from it.

Plus, it's Mac-friendly too, which is obviously a plus
 
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